Poster Presentation

Setting up Research

University of Phoenix

PSYCH/665

Setting Up Your Research

Respond to the following exercises from Chapter One of The Literature Review in 150 to 200 words each. For the Additional Question, record the research and null hypotheses for your project.

· Exercise 1.1: Discovering the Subject of Your Interest or Issue of Inquiry

Biopsychosocial

I have so many interests, finding a topic is not difficult, but narrowing down the specifics to research is challenging. I have always been fascinated with alternative medicine and do these modalities really work or is it just the placebo effect; for example, essential oils, meditation, acupuncture, massage, mindfulness, Angel therapy, Reiki, and even a new one called Huna energy work. According to Machi and McEvoy (2012), “We question why specific facets of work succeed while others fail, why some strategies or tactics succeed more than others, or why people think, learn, and act in certain ways.” (p. 14). My goal on my topic of interest is to understand why people think a certain way about Reiki, a biofield therapy, or what new agers call, mind-body practice. Reiki is a healing technique based on the principle that a Reiki Master can channel energy by means of touch to the client that activates a natural healing process. The goal of Reiki is to move the energy around the patient’s body to restore physical ailments and promote well-being. Reiki is a Japanese technique that there is unseen, spiritually guided life-force energy that flows through us to improve one’s health and enhance the quality of life (The International Center for Reiki Training, 2017). The technique is taught and an attunement is given to a Reiki Master (student) that will allow the student to tap into this energy and provide this healing modality (The International Center for Reiki Training, 2017).

I found quite a few peer-reviewed articles related to this topic and will have to narrow down my hypothesis. My hypothesis could read as follows: Do Reiki recipients have improved outcomes because they have received sustained human touch? Furthermore, how do you create a placebo standard for a hands-on healing technique?

· Exercise 1.2: Understanding the Personal Viewpoint

According to Machi & McEvoy (2012), “Once you have selected the focus of the subject, you need to select the perspective or vantage point that is the place from which you view the subject.” (p. 22). What is my vantage point with Reiki in the quest to narrowing down my focus on my statement? My own personal viewpoint about Reiki is My knowledge base in recent years has grown on alternative healing methods and I have started to use some of these methods in my own everyday life. Ten years ago, I had extensive lower back surgery and was on opioids for a month. I knew that I didn’t want to be dependent while I healed and knew that I was going to have back pain for a while until the healing was over. I researched and got into yoga, meditation, massage, and using essential oils to life my mood up; all of these worked, but at times I still have occasional pain in leg and heal. I went out to Nellis Airforce Base to ask about pain management shots and the doctor asked me to try acupuncture first in my head on the pain receptors before he would refer me. I took him up on it and had two successful treatments. In addition, I had a friend that said she did Reiki and would I like a treatment and work on my life-force energy to help with the pain and maybe even alleviate it. Not only would she perform a session, but she had a class coming up where I could work on myself or other, should I so desire.

This sparked my interest due to the other modalities working, I thought, why not! I took the class and I am not sure if the benefit was from an actual energy exchange or a placebo effect, but it did work somewhat. I later became a Reiki Master thinking if it helped me and some of my other friends, maybe I could help others. Most of the individuals that I have worked on have felt relief and have touted my Reiki skills; however, in my mind, the jury was still out. Is it because I do not have a tangible, tested method that I could validate and could be replicated? I don’t know the answer and this has sparked me to research more in-depth the healing effects of Reiki, but now I have another question that will narrow down the possibilities and let me chip away, slowly, at researching if when performing Reiki, does the laying of hands on have an affect more than hovering hands above the client! I think I have just had a eureka moment, which will lead me into the next question, selecting the focus of my study.

· Exercise 1.3: Selecting the Focus of Your Study

The focus of my study, just by writing this assignment, has become clearer in that I truly do not understand the healing effects, if any, healing by hand, to clear blockages of energy, thereby performing a healing using Reiki and that perspective. The key is to remove my perspective and look at the scientific research. Choosing a vantage point for my study is to first look at the academic fields that currently use Reiki; for example, chiropractic offices are starting to incorporate Reiki as an alternative treatment, a Catholic hospital in my area offers volunteer Reiki Masters if a patient wants this type of treatment, and independent practitioners. The only specific knowledge base needed is to be trained by another Reiki Master and be attuned in the three levels of energy exchange.

According to Machi and McEvoy (2012), “The key to developing a successful research topic is the ability to examine the personal interest, concern, or problem to study.” (p. 23). The more clarity and specificity in defining my interest in Reiki will make it easier to connect to the topic (Machi & McEvoy, 2012). To illustrate the study of Reiki, specifically, does laying on of hands during a session have more of an effect than hovering during a treatment provide a positive outcome in that the patient believed that they had some benefit, I need to study and address it from the patient’s perspective.

· Exercise 1.5: Developing Your Interest Statement

The dilemma I have is to narrow down the question statement into one that is clear and can be validated. In order to develop your interest statement, the authors suggest writing down seven sentences that are relevant to my area of interest; Reiki. After reviewing these sentences, the authors ask you to cross out at least two of those sentences without changing your focus of study, then cross out any words or phrases that can be removed without changing the meaning (Machi & McEvoy, 2012). Once you perform these tasks, reduce the remaining draft to three senescence’s identifying the subject, the perspective on how you are looking at it, then what is your vantage point (Machi & McEvoy, 2012). This is where some of the literature reviews come into play where you need to identify which contributions to the field make the research important; this might be difficult since Reiki is not a widely used. Finally, I will need to identify my own believes, values and biases that will help me when conducting the research; moreover, prevent my own personal viewpoints from affecting the neutral stance of the research (Machi & McEvoy, 2012).

Salkind (2012) stated, “The null hypothesis is a statement of equality.” (p. 28).

So, having gone through this valuable exercise, my research will be to study the following: Reiki is an alternative healing modality based on the principle that a Reiki Master can channel energy into a patient by means of laying of hands or hovering slightly about a client to activate the life-force energy that starts a natural healing process to restore physical and emotional health.

Machi, L. A., & McEvoy, B. T. (2012). The literature review six steps to success (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Salkind, N. J. (2012). Exploring research (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

 The International Center for Reiki Training. (2017). Reiki. Retrieved from http://www.reiki.org/